Tuesday, September 11, 2018

More than 25,000 baseball enthusiasts waited one hour yesterday for the fifth world series game to start at Boston while the big-leaguers of Cubs and Red Sox argued with the National Commission for a heavier share in the profits of the tournament. By a mere eyelash the most startling scandal ever attached to the game was avoided after the crowd had about reached the end of its patience.

A tragic feature of the situation was the appearance of hundreds of wounded officers and soldiers, survivors of the Marne, many of whom were brought in on invalid chairs. The immense arena rose as one to cheer these heroes, and their echoes resounded to the room where the ball players wrangled with Ban Johnson and Garry Herrmann, telling such a tale of heroism that the big-leaguers instantly surrendered.

Those are what we in the 21st century would call “bad optics”. Once they took the field, Hippo Vaughn completely silenced the Red Sox with a five-hit shutout. Game six is this afternoon at Fenway with Carl Mays trying to close out the series for Boston. He’ll face Lefty Tyler.

Elsewhere in the news 100 years ago today, the head of the United States Chemical Service, Major General William Sibert, wants to assure Americans that Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb didn’t get ‘soft’ jobs and will be actively involved with combat as gas officers.

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Last night he went 2/5. His season and career OBP went down. Which is just a fancy way of saying that they're above .400, but a night in which you get two hits is a good one.

Trout has walked a league-leading 111 times this season, to go with 111 strike outs. Last season it was 94/90, every season before that he was striking out more than he walked. He has a career high figures in OBP, OPS, and OPS+. His slugging is his second-highest mark (after last year). So far this season he has the highest SB% of his career (about 91%). Guys, I don't know how this is possible, but Mike Trout is getting better.

Last night, Josh Hader came on in the 7th inning. He faced 6 Cubs and struck them all out.

This actually tied a MLB record: most batters faced in one game where you struck them all out. This was just the 9th time in history that has been done.

Ryne Stanek set the record for starters last month by striking out the first five White Sox in a game and then getting pulled. The old record was three by Ernie Shore in 1915 and another Ray, Sergio Romo in May of this year. Nobody else had a start with more than one.

Hmm. In 46 years of affiliation with Purdue, I had never realized that Stu (Fat Jack's predecessor) had gone on to become an MLB GM. Obviously he should have stuck to football, where he at least had...um...interesting assistant coaches (e.g., Steinbrenner, Stram).

Ellis Clary is a player I know because of a historical DMB league. He only played in the majors from 1942 to 1945, and hugely benefited from so many players being pulled away due to the war effort, as he had less than no power - for his career, he had 35 XBH in 778 PA, but 32 of those 35 XBH were doubles. However, despite his lack of power, he still put up a respectable 103 OPS+ for his career, on a line of 0.263/0.376/0.323. That sort of line seems to be completely gone from the game anymore. He went on to play another eight years in the minors after his last major league game, and mostly remained the same type of player - a bit more power, but still tons of walks.

Apparently, he spent most of the rest of his life in the game, coaching for the Senators, scouting for them when they became the Twins up until the mid-80s, and being a special assignment scout for the White Sox and Jays until he retired in 1993 at the age of 77.

Ryne Stanek set the record for starters last month by striking out the first five White Sox in a game and then getting pulled. The old record was three by Ernie Shore in 1915 and another Ray, Sergio Romo in May of this year. Nobody else had a start with more than one.

I think Stanek may have also set the record for No Decisions as a starter this year. He has 23.

Stanek may have also set the record for No Decisions as a starter this year. He has 23

That's correct per B-Ref. The old record was 20. I guess that could be a trivia question, who was the only pitcher other than Stanek to record 20 NDs in a season? He did it at the peak of Western civilization.

Actually that's a pretty baffling season, Blyleven in 1979. How do you go 12-5 in 37 starts?

There have been 19 seasons in history where a starter has recorded 16 or more NDs (should have specified starter, of course, a gigantic number of relievers have done that). In most of those 19 seasons, the starter threw 90-100 innings in his NDs. Blyleven threw 117. Stanek has thrown 32. Joba Chamberlain is the next-lowest in IPs, 70 IP in 16 NDs in the "Joba Rules" year of 2009.

Blyleven was 1-2 after 12 starts in April and May and then he went 3-1 in his 12 starts in August and September. He did remember how to win and lose in June and July, getting 10 decisions (8-2) in 13 starts.

Elsewhere in the news 100 years ago today, the head of the United States Chemical Service, Major General William Sibert, wants to assure Americans that Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb didn’t get ‘soft’ jobs and will be actively involved with combat as gas officers.

And I could say something funny about this, too, but I will refrain: it's just too sad.